Bestiary

When Mawu-Lisa was giving birth to the creatures of the world, the Rainbow Serpent Aido-Hwedo held them in its mouth and traveled across the earth. When he was done, he coiled up under the world and used his body to support the heavenly bodies in the sky.

A primal spirit of storms and serpents, the Great Python is revered for his healing powers and control over rain. This Rainbow Serpent is largely responsible for the rains and the lightning. When the serpent gets thirsty from holding up the world, he strikes at the clouds with such fierceness and speed that it looks like flashes of light; when he drinks the water from the sky, it often spills over the sides of his mouth and falls to the ground below as rain. When Aido-Hwedo feels full from drinking, he stretches across the sky, his banded scales shining with the luminous colors of the rainbow.

When Mawu-Lisa saw how many people there were in the world, the Parents of All Things knew They had to let some of the creatures of the Earth die so that our world wouldn’t be overrun. If too many people lived on earth, Mawu-Lisa knew, everyone would suffer. And so, They created Death, but wanted to give all living things an informed decision before that Death was revealed. When Mawu-Lisa came to the Earth and asked who would like to live forever, Aido-Hwedo said “Me, Mawu-Lisa, I would like to live forever.” Thus, the Rainbow Serpent gets to live, always shedding its skin and being born again in a new life.

Given his endless life, Aido-Hwedo several aspects. In Haitian Vodoun, he may be known as the female Loa Ayida-Weddo, her consort Damballa-Weddo, or occasionally both. (Gods are like that.) To the Fon people of Benin, the red part of the Rainbow Serpent is male, and the blue part is female; green and white, however, are commonly associated with both deities. Some tales regard the Rainbow Serpent as an aide to this world’s creators, while others insist the Rainbow Serpent is the Creator of this world. Like the Great Python itself, these tales curl around one another and swallow their own tail, as solid as the stone beneath our feet and ephemeral as the colors of the sky.

In the Loa aspect of Ayida-Weddo, the Rainbow Serpent nurtures fertility, protects snakes, and presides over water, wind, and storms; her colors are blue and white, and she favors offerings of milk, eggs, bleached cotton, and white rice. As Damballa, he rules intellect, consciousness, and the balance of natural forces; he loves white rum and white eggs, and he’s considered to be perhaps the most vital of all Loa. Despite the sinister nature attributed to him by ignorant outsiders, Damballa-Weddo is a paragon of innocence and purity, sometimes associated with (or regarded as) Bon Dieu, a knowable aspect of the Most High himself.

By any name or aspect, the Great Python has many children: the serpents of our world, who are deeply respected by those who understand the ways of vodou. When a snake enters the home of a vodou devotee, that practitioner must treat the serpent with respect, for that snake may be a messenger from the ancestors, coming to pay that person a visit. After paying their respects, that person should let the snake leave on its own accord. Whether they carry a message or not, snakes are regarded as the bearers of secrets because they go everywhere, listening silently to everything, even in the night where secrets like to hide. This reverence for serpents extends even to the most venomous of snakes, like the black mamba and the Indian cobra. If someone abuses or kills a deadly snake, Aido-Hwedo’s vengeance can follow them into their nightmares and torture that person until the end of her life.

Great Python is a titanic sky-serpent with rainbow-colored scales. The god’s domain stretches across the skies of the Middle Umbra, where this deity can be seen and occasionally met by travelers who ascend to the Aetherian Reaches which present “the face of the soul of forever.” At times, the Serpent manifests as a male or female person, often merged with the body of a gigantic snake. In all regards, the Rainbow Serpent is beautiful and terrible to behold.

Patient in wisdom and in anger, the Rainbow Serpent per­ sonifies the cool distance of an immortal snake. If badly crossed, however, the Great Python won’t be satisfied until the offenders are either repentant or dead… and may not be satisfied even then.

Manifestations: Rainbows, serpents, storms and especially lightning.

Associations: Snakes, blessings, beginnings, rain, sunlight, rebirth, immortality.

Brood: Snakes of all kinds, but especially those with bright coloration.

Abilities: Enigmas, Medicine, Survival

Bans: Devotees of the Rainbow Serpent should not, of course, harm snakes if they can help it.